Chivalry
by Hannan
Summary: One-shot: Danny's son, Jack, learns about male ego as he tries to get his sister home. Future fiction, obviously.


**Disclaimer**: Butch Hartman's original characters: (Danny and Sam), are not mine at all. And since Jack and Lily are the offspring of those canons, isn't that like second hand? Haha. Whatever. Not mine either, I guess. Kinda.

**Author's Notes**: Crud I haven't been on here in for-_ever_! Sorry about that. =o Anyway...

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Lily Fenton was skipping along, next to her big brother. "Jack?" She asked, stretching her neck to look all the way up at the six foot five inched boy. "When is we getting to home?"

Jack strode easily, the thought of shortening his stride for her sake not even crossing his 17-year-old mind. "We're almost there, Lil. I just need to figure out this bus schedule."

The small-for-her-age girl shifted her weight, (however tiny that was), to the other foot and sighed. "Ja-ack. You've been looking at the dumb thing for soo long. What's wrong? Should we call Daddy?"

_Geez_, thought her brother, _when did she learn to be just like Mom_? Instead of voicing that though, he said, "No, I've got this." Just a minute later, however, he grabbed Lily's hand and began dragging her over to a long line of people. "Okay, scrap that plan. Lil, that map is crud. We'll just ask the lady at the conter what to take to get back home, 'kay? 'Kay." He said, answering his own question, not giving Lily time to answer it herself.

Generally, when they were in tight spaces like this, they would just call their father. Lily thought that it was extremely stupid of Jack to ignore the fact that Daddy would come at a moment's notice to his children's rescue, but _no_. He had to do it on his own! _What did Mommy call that? Oh yeah, male __ego__**.**_

The line was very long. Lily peeked around the tall hobo in front of them and sighed. "Let's call Daddy, Jack. Daddy can help us."

"Shut up. I don't have a quarter."

Daniel and Samantha Fenton hadn't gotton around to buying their kids cell phones, like the rest of the world.

Lily still tugged on Jack's hand. "But I see one right over there. Can't I go get it? I can find a pay phone!"

"Shut _up_!" Jack's voice was irritated. "The quarter's probably stuck to the ground anyway."

The curly headed pip squeak gave her brother a sassy look, (the one that her mother, Sam, would always get aggravated with and grumble about where she learned it… eventually she would rabbit trail into the media's bad influence and then threaten to throw away their TVs. Lily never gave that look to her mom anymore), and tore her fingers out his grasp. She dove for the quarter, tumbling through a tall man's walking legs, and trimuphantly popped up to show her brother her prize. "I'm calling Dad-dy!" Lily sang, her little voice barely carrying over the loud voices scattered around the station. Jack had to half-lipread the statement, but he completely understood.

"Oh no you don't!" He countered, jumping over and around innocent bystanders, trying to rescue his ego from draining down the tube.

Lily was tapping a 20-something woman on the shoulder when Jack got to her. "Can you lift me up the phone?" She asked, Jack noticing her inherited-blue eyes looking huger and cuter than normal. The lady was buying into it completely, and agreed. "But only if you are calling home, cutie," she said, "A little doll like yourself shouldn't be out here alone."

Jack jumped in. "Nope, she's not alone, Miss. That's my sister. Lily. That's her name."

The girl's eyebrows went down a bit, showing her annoyance. The lady looked down at her. "Is that your name? Lily?"

_She's trying to get back at me for getting us lost_, the teenager thought. He shot her a warning look. "No," she practically mewed to the poor woman, who was still believing everything the 'angel' was saying, "my name is… Sam. Samantha Manson. And I need to call my Daddy." She looked at Jack. "So will you please go away, Boy?"

The lady raised an eyebrow triumpantally. "You heard her, Creep."

Jack threw up his hands. "Fine! Call Dad, Lil! See if I care! And Mom's going to be mad when she finds out you used her name!"

He heard Lily saying, "Why are boys so mean?" as he stormed away.

2 days earlier, he and his dad had sat down to have a chat, man to man. It included some birds and bees stuff, but also had some special stuff thrown in because Danny was a super hero.

" Okay Jack," he had said, "check this out; when girls were made, they were made different then we were. They're cuter and smell better and are way softer. All that good stuff. But they also have to be treated with respect. You see how I treat your Mom?"

Jack had shown a bit of disgust. "Uh, duh, how could I miss it? You guys are all over each other."

Danny dimpled. "That's-uh-not what I was referring to. Haven't you ever noticed that when I'm with a lady, I open doors for them and stand up when they come in or leave? I don't do that for dudes, Kiddo."

Rolling his eyes, Jack put his feet up on the coffee table. Danny raised his eyebrow and Jack sighed, taking them off again. "Uh yeah Dad, whatever. Can't you like, just go over birds and bees or whatever and get this over with?"

His father laughed. "I would, but then you wouldn't be completely in the know. Okay, so we've established that girls are special and should be treated like so?"

"Yes."

"And that, yes, it is really fun to kiss them and…whatever… but that you should treat them with respect and like a gift and not a toy?"

"Uh-huh."

"Unconvincing."

"Yesh."

Danny smiled at his boy. "Okay, so here's the fun part; male ego. Because we're men, we get to act like it. Not only do you get to treat the lovely ladies with honor and respect, but you also get to burp the alphabet just because you feel like it."

"Mom does that." Jack had pointed out.

Danny laughed. "Isn't it beautiful, too? Anyway, as guys, we take the lead. You get to mess up the directions, buy the wrong groceries, and withdraw too much money from your banking account because you're the man and when you mess up, it was probably supposed to be done that way anyway."

"Really?"

"No."

"Darn."

"But you do get the priviledge of thinking that all you want."

Jack half-smiled. "Cool."

"And doing crazy-weird stunts until the cows come home without any excuse of why your clothes are dirty rags when you're done."

"Really?!"

"Sure. Unfortunately you also have your mother to think about for that one, so don't push her too hard."

So, on the way home from Jack's football game today, he had decided to figure out their way back on his own. He was the last senior ever to not have a car, so he was stuck deciphering the bus schedule.

And, he admitted it, he sucked at it.

"But she didn't have to call Dad," he sighed, growling to himself, slumped on an empty bench.

Just then, Lily hopped up. "He'll be here soon. Sorry I lied."

_Be nice to girls. Don't hit your sister_. "It's okay, Lil. I was wrong."

Lily just nodded. They sat in silence for a minute. Jack began spacing out when Lily suddenly tugged on his sleeve. "Jack!" She prodded, "Look at that lady!"

"Not now, Lil."

"No really, Jacky. Look at her."

Jack, grudgingly, looked over. "Which one?"

As soon as he looked though, he saw, "Oh man," and jumped up.

The lady Lily was pointing to had like, 4 kids, one a baby, and about 7 bags, shopping and purses alike. A baby bag in the mix, too. One of the kids was wailing, another was sulking, and one looked like they were about to sneak off. The only one that was peaceful was the one that the poor mother was trying to keep a hold of in her arm, which was also slung with bags and the like.

Jack jumped over to her, rescuing three bags from falling to the ground just in time. "Can I help you out, Ma'am?"

She just looked at him for a minute. Then she snapped to attention. "Oh, yes, thank you so much. Could you set the bags down? There are breakable things in them. Wait, Joe! Joe! Come back here!"

The boy she was calling to was wandering away, obviously not wanting to obey his mother. Jack quickly got the bags, gently, to the ground, and then ran after the boy. "Hey dude," he said firmly, leading the kid by the arm, "not cool. Don't just leave your mom, she needs you."

With the same sassy look Lily had wore earlier, he retorted, "What for?"

Jack fake-gasped, "What for? Honestly? Kid, you're the man of the house right now. Your mom has no one else to help her out. You want to be a man, right? Be the tough guy who looks after her?"

Slowly, green-eyed Joe nodded. "Yeah. How do I do that?"

"Okay, I've got some real important things that you could help her with that she can't do on her own. You ready?" Jack squatted next to him, looking him straight in the eye.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, see how she's struggling? You could help carry some of those bags, but you gotta be real careful."

Joe was wide-eyed. "Why?"

"'Cause they've got stuff that can break in them. Now, if you don't think you're man enough to take the hardest job…"

"-No, I can do it! Honest!"

"Okay, then. Let's go, Dude!"

When Jack had gotten the lady, (whose name was Theresa by the way), ready to go with Joe carrying some of the bags and holding his sister's hand, she looked him right in the face, studying him, and said, "I didn't think I'd ever say this kid, but you've proved to me that chivalry still lives on today. Thank you for helping me."

Jack's chest inflated a bit with pride. He had already made sure that she was capable of get out to her car and offering his own set of hands a number of times. (She had insisted that it was fine now, and that he should keep an eye on his 'pretty little sister')

Danny arived a few moments later. "You ready, guys?" He asked, his blue eyes glimmering.

Lily dimpled and nodded, taking her father's hand on one side and Jack's on the other side.

"Sorry you didn't get to be a man today, Jack." His father told him, over Lily's head.

Jack just grinned. "I think I did anyway, Dad."


End file.
